Celebrity Kickstarters

Okay. I admit I was the first to stand up and cheer when the Veronica Mars movie Kickstarted themselves. Of course, I love that show. It finished without a resolution, I’ve always wanted more from those characters speaking in that rarified voice. So now when Zach Braff launched his Kickstarter for his Garden State follow-up, I was suddenly conflicted. I LOVE Garden State! Obviously, I want Braff to make more movies with that same wistful tone filled with quirky wonderful characters and simple elegant imagery.

–Side note: Have you seen how the final frame of that flick centers the two main characters in a BOX OF LIGHT caused by the opening of an automatic door and it’s reflection in the floor? AMAZING! Like…ridiculously amazing. I didn’t mean for this side note to turn into a thing, but LOOK AT IT! Jump to 1:50 in the timeline to see the end shot:

–But I digress. Suddenly, as Kevin Smith began warning his podcast listeners as soon as the VMArs Kicksrtarter happened, in my minds eye I saw the pool of crowd sourcing money drain into the budgets of established industry player’s projects. I watched Braff’s hilarious and inspiring Kickstarter video and I started thinking, how much money can I put into this?!?! I’m going to miss out on the private city screenings because I have to wait until payday to donate, but of course I’m going to donate. With people with Twitter followings like this Kickstarting their movies, how the sweet bejesus are guys like me going to fair when we bring our little projects to the already tapped out crowdfunding community? Sure, we only need 10 to 20 thousand for our project, but if Rob Thomas, Zach Braff, and Melissa Joan Hart–yup, Clarissa the teenaged Sabrina jumped in just before Braff–are all asking for 2 mil’, we’re moving down the priority list pretty quickly. Crowd sourcers are folks like me. We want to donate our own money to see folks who are passionate create something we’re excited about. But like I said, I gotta wait until payday to get in on Braff’s project and then my project donation income is tapped for a while. The folks who like my show like a lot of the artists I like, when they’re all getting my audience’s money, I’m afraid we’re going to have to go back to everybody working for free instead of just me working for free. I hope that’s not the case, because I like my cast and crew to feel appreciated, and nothing says ‘you’re worth it’ like some money, but if I have to go back to out of pocket to see this thing done, you know I will. We started with nothing, and we have a lot to show for it. I’m just happy our audience shows up to watch, let alone the generosity they’ve shown us financially over the last few episodes.

Head to this links to check out the Zach Braff and Melissa Joan Hart Kickstarter projects, each running for the $2 million dollar goal that VMars hit and then surpassed. The Braff video is especially good.

I hear what you’re saying. What are the studios thinking when they won’t fund these more independent type movies. I just don’t get it. Obviously Veronica Mars and Zach Braff (and Clarissa for that matter) have huge fan appeal. Why can’t the studio big wigs see it? I would much rather Kickstarter be for those who don’t already have the big exposure and connections. It feels more like I’m part of a “grass roots” effort. Hmmm…food for thought.

I don’t think you need to worry about it, I think kickstarter is more about community than it is about product. The kind of personal experience you get when watching something like Platoon of Power Squadron is entirely different from a 2 million dollar movie.

It feels more personal, you get to see the updates, you get to know something about the process and it feels like you get to know the people who make it – the people who appreciate that, will continue to donate to smaller projects regardless of these huge ones.

I just hope I can donate sometime, kickstarter does not accept swiss francs -.-